There's something uniquely appealing about a film with a disturbed protagonist. A great villain is one thing, but going on a journey with a lead character whose goals and methods of achieving them are less than savoury is a rare treat.
The fantastic new Jake Gyllenhaal film Nightcrawler, which opens in Kiwi cinemas next week, is one such treat. Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, a troubled Los Angelino who is introduced stealing fencing wire in the middle of the night which he then sells for scrap. After violently dealing to the security guard who hassles him, that is.
Several nights later, Bloom happens upon a car accident on the freeway, and encounters some of the videographers who sell footage of such incidents. It's a job perfectly suited to Bloom, whose sociopathic tendencies correlate nicely with the notion of filming other people's pain and suffering, then profiting from it.
Gyllenhaal's performance in Nightcrawler is a thing of hypnotic deadpan wonder. The pep talks he gives his assistant Rick (played by The Relunctant Fundamentalist's Riz Ahmed) are hilariously messed-up. There is no winking in Gyllenhaal's performance, but somehow he manages to give the audience permission to laugh at his peculiar way of being.
